My 25th birthday arrived on time... much to my surprise as it began in the very traditional English Birthday Bundle! Ok it might not be a tradition, but on this morning my lovely housemates blew up balloons and ran into my room singing the american anthem whilst loaded down with birthday gifts! They sang me a good round of Happy birthday and i open some of the most amazing birthday gifts ever! we then went down to my favorite breakfast of waffles with peanut butter. Then we headed off for morning prayer and teaching day at the boiler house. At the boiler house i was met by more happy birthday greetings and cards and presents. Everyone was to amazing to remember. I even got prayed over during morning prayer which was amazing! ha ha!
oh at this point i should mention that i wore the most interesting outfit i could put together, so i had on this black dress, with a sweater under, gray tights, overlaid with knee high stripe socks, and my ever famous snow boots, plus angel wings i had got that morning for my birthday, and my favorite scare that i just bought! it was ridiculous! everyone was just shaking their heads at me!
So teaching in the morning was good and then in the afternoon they said they were taking me out to lunch. They blind folded me and drove me around town, to end up across the road at this amazing couple house Rob and Sally! They had made my favorite lunch ever bread, cheese, and wine!! we ate and laughed and played pass the parcel! Then the guys all busted out skills and sang "the final count down" and played air guitar! I never laughed so hard! it was so funny!
we went back and finished off teaching. then we came home and the girls wanted to take me out for dinner so we went to this amazing restaurant! it was so good. i got a little sick while eating because i have been sick all weekend and it was a lot of food to consume in one day! but it was still great. And now we came home and are watching Horton Hears a Who!! i've been dying to watch this moving forever so it is like the perfect ending to the perfect day!
English Birthdays are freaking amazing! just never ask them what the Birthday Bumps are... cuz dude that is scary!!!
Peace!!
I have been looking forward to December getting here for a number of different reasons. my birthday, christmas, my family coming to visit!!! This weekend was the first official party kick off weekend. The weekend was speckled with Christmas adventures and a fabulous birthday party. So, i was completely devastated, when friday morning i woke up more sick than i have been in ages. Full blown, back ache, tummy ache, cramping legs, dizziness. I spend the whole day sprawled out on the couch, nursing a glass of water and trying to muster up enough strength to get off the couch. Even today the ache of sickness clings on.
As i lay on the couch yesterday... completely drained of all energy... bemoaning my life... i thought to myself. "What a waste of a day". And then it hit me. The day would only be a waste if i made it that way. I've been running around like crazy this last month. no time to stop and consider a lot of the life lessons i have been learning. As i lay on the couch, i started thinking over this first term as a transit student here in Corringham, Essex. It has been really amazing, but some days were just plain were hell to get through. From the loss of identity in my job, to a whole new role in friendships; this first terms has really challenged me. Back home i was so use to be very independent. Even among my group of friends and co-workers i was the one leading the way and coming up with activities to do. People looked to me to take charge and come up with the plans and because they did life was golden. Here, it is a completely different story. I can't function as an independent individual. Not only do i have to consider the people around me, but i've had to learn what it means to follow and listen. Two of the hardest things for me to do. Here my ideas are not the best, the brightest or the newest.
Overall i can't believe how much satisfaction i got out of life by making other people think i was a good person. Here, the people are so amazingly focused on God and doing things for the right reason... that when i try and do "good things" to make people think highly of me... it totally just flops right to the floor. For a while, i was feeling completely out of place because i felt like i have nothing to offer this new community that i am living with. They could out give me, out smile me, out plan me... it was beyond any situation i have ever been in.
Finally i had to realize the importance of doing all things "unto the Lord". Which is really hard. Taking myself out of the center was something i talked about all the time and thought i had done time and time before. but here i find myself, yet again needing to do the same thing. I live such a circular lifestyle... i really don't know what to say out that, but as i lay sick on the couch thinking what a waste of the day it was, i decided to make the most of being sick. I couldn't do much of anything, but in between moments of dizziness and aching back i had some really good conversations with God. Being sick slowed me down enough on friday to just soak in some God conversation with God. In the end the reflection and time to chat with God was exactly what i need over this weekend! So cheers to being sick in a new month!
wooohoooo! its december and my favorite month of the year... well at least for gift giving and getting that is... with a birthday and christmas all rolled into one month, it can be exciting! so last week went out with a bang. we had a hard core thanksgiving meal, that i completely made... i have never been so happy to eat turkey, stuffing, and mash potatoes! i did scare a number of my english guess, because they do not put sweet and savory dishes together and, as i am learning, america is really all about putting sweet and savory together... sweet potatoes, jellos... they had a little fit when i plopped them all on my plate with gravy! ha ha ha!
but i am totally looking forward to a break from transit. we have been going hard this first semester. getting to know each other, establishing our identities in christ, dreaming for life, serving our community... its been quite a ride. sometimes the days are really long and i get bored or think to myself... "this is what i left good american soil for???" but then God reminds me that if i am living in his will, regardless of where it is, it will make an impact. I am involved a little in a lot of ministry work here and sometimes it is hard to see how it is making any impact.. how can wiping down the tables at the prayer house, or drinking hot chocolates with some street kids, or making dinner for a team of travelers really matter that much? couldn't anyone do what i do? and the answer is... well yes, anyone really could do what i do. and i prolly could be doing what i do back in good ol' america, but that isn't where God has called me or where i am suppose to be! so i just need to suck it up!
i do find myself being more and more restless as my time here moves on. we are learning so much about impacting the world, and dreaming big, and trusting God, that i just want to get out there and do it. in some ways i am, but at this moment i totally just feel called to be here in England for this year. So i have a really bad habit of pushing to have all the answers of where i am going and what God wants me to do when this is all said and done. I get frustrated sometimes because i pray for deeper and more detailed vision for life after transit and sometimes it just feels like i am praying to a big black whole. One of the ladies here reminded me that God gives us the tools we need, the desires we need, and the support we need to do the things he has called us to do in the moments he has called us to do them... and not before. That really has been helpful because it just gave me a peace about when i pray for my future. God knows what he has in store and as long as i choose him daily, he will work it out. and when i need to know where to go he will tell me, and when i need to hear how i should go, he will tell me... our God is so amazing that way.
so i am focusing on digging into God more and less into me! this week at the boiler house we are having a week of simplicity. so we cook up soup and everyone comes to the boiler house and eats soup instead of eating at home... then they bring whatever money they would have spend on food to the boiler house and we then, at the end of the week, donated it to a ministry. last time we raised about $800 dollars and we sent it to an orphanage in India! its pretty cool!
love and kisses!
well i pretty much had the most amazing day. It started out going down to the boiler house and helping out with the thanksgiving activity we had planned there. We baked all these cakes for people that serve in our community, like the librarians, and volunteers at the charity shops, policemen, firefighter etc. It was a pretty amazing day. We prayed over the cakes as we baked them and then later in the the day they went out and delivered our "prayer" cakes... it was a fun way to pray and show our appreciation to the people in our community.
I left the boiler house around noon to get back to our house so that i could start making food for our thanksgiving that we are hosting here at our house. It was one of the most incredible days. i absolutely loved spending the day making pies, and stuffing, and sides dishes. it was a fun day... and as much as i cringe to write this.. spending the day in the kitchen was absolutely wonderful! So after baking for seriously like 8 hours, i am now bumming on the couch watching "take the lead" and am surprised by how much i really enjoyed the movie! anyways! i'm going to take my little domesticated self to bed... ooo that sounds so good! oh and i am going to miss you all in your americanness tomorrow so don't take for granted the wonder of being american and enjoying your family on that day.. because you don't know how much you will miss it until you don't have it! mwahah!
So thanksgiving week as got off to a good start. The transit girls and i have been in charge of planning a week of thanksgiving at the boiler house. lets just say we didn't know how much we had cut out for us. We decided on monday we would have communion where you would walk through the character of God through these prayer stations. The night went so absolutely well, totally because God is gracious. We did work really hard to put together the night and all the stations. but then this amazing gentle, quiet spirit of God showed up and the night was real good. Today we had another busy day, with me going and getting all the ingredients for Thanksgiving and then later that night we hosted Destination Dinner with a Clue theme. It was hilariously fun. We went around to all these houses have parts of the meal and collecting clues! I was really proud of us to get it all put together. So i am pretty cream crackered, but i want to finish making some of the Jello side dishes we are having for thanksgiving so i am watching the movie Love Actually and tickling away at the key board. well i am going to just veg for a bit... later later!
one day carla and i went to southend.... we drove all the way there for the sole purpose of getting donuts. they have these amazing donuts.... oh man they are ridiculously good!
yeah glow stick power. we went to a bonfire party and they handed out glow sticks to the kids.... yep i was considered a kid at this party. but hey if it snags me a glow stick i don't mind!
a nice relaxing evening in we decided to do face masks. Charl and i just like to be chill like that.
this is us on our pilgrimage week. we went to the oldest recorded town in Britain, Colchester. we had to set up two prayer rooms that week and this is the wailing wall that we set up at one of them. It is where we can write down our prayer... it pretty sweet.
here i am at outside a pretty old english church
this is one of the other prayer rooms we set up. we set this one up for 12-16 year old girls so we built this den that they could crawl into. it was really cool and turned out amazing!
here is the finish product of the prayer room. the room was completely bare when we walked in. we had to set up that tent. the den is to the right it was an african theme prayer room so we had drums and lions up too!
here is Charl mid-prayer room set up! it can be a lot of work setting up a prayer room... and breaks are needed
we went shopping one day and i found an elephant carving! i love elephants and wanted this really bad... but it was like 100s of pounds... so i just took a picture instead.
messing around outside a phone booth...
here charl and i are making a Carla sandwich!!! holllahhhh
gemma and i in the car... always ganstahhhh!!
one night charl and i got a little bored so we cling filmed our host door shut... what can i say... don't let me get bored...
here we are goofing around in the lift. we take every opportunity to take photos of ourselves!
we went to an art opening in london and this was one of the pieces that i really enjoyed. they took photos of people with paper stuck to their faces, then they took the paper that was on the peoples faces and hung that in front of the picture, the they took a mesh wire molds and hung that in front of those pictures... it was really cool!
we went to harrods a famous department store in london... at night they light it all up it was really pretty. i enjoyed looking around there a lot!
here we are in london waiting for the bus. it can get boring just like in america! haha i actually think we posed for this picture to be fair!
here i the whole crew. me, gemma, carla, and charl right outside our house...
here is the outside of our house
here is our living room... tho now we have rearranged so it looks different.
here is our bathroom!!
here i am outside our house with the great umbrella that karen gave me before i left... i put it to good use all the time! thank you so much for that karen!!
here mom this one is for you!! i found an aldi!!
this is carla, my host, and i making a stuffed charl (are other housemate) when she went out and left us alone in the house!!
Yeah the first day of moving into our house! here i am hanging curtains in my room!
here is charl and i headed into london... we like to be gangstahhh whenever we can!
this is charl at the Boiler House right before a house meal. The boiler house host house meals every tuesday and wednesday. About 30 people come each night and we all eat together. it is a pretty fun time! this is one of the rooms that we have set up!
About Me
- Teen Bean
- I'm just some regular girl trying her best to be a good friend, woman, christ-follower, wife, mom and adventurer (in no particular order). I love variety, trying new things and meeting new people and sharing experiences with others. All of which in one form or another can be found in this space. WELCOME!
Heart Heart Time!
Stevie and Beanie
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